‘Ça ira,’ a Birth-of-a-Nation Tale in France, Wins Molière Award for Best Play

PARIS — A stage production with a birth-of-a-nation theme and actors who speak in contemporary language has swept its country’s top theater honors. No, it wasn’t “Hamilton,” but “Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis,” a play about the early years of the French Revolution, which won Molière awards for best director, best playwright and best play on Monday night.

The more than four-hour-long play, written and directed by Joël Pommerat, is an exploration of the early years of the French Revolution dating back to 1788. The characters speak in contemporary language, are dressed in clothing from the 1970s, and are led by a king who poses for a selfie.

As in “Hamilton,” the smash Broadway hip-hop musical that netted 16 Tony nominations this year, the 14 actors in “Ça ira” developed some of the dialogue with weeks of improvisation during rehearsals.

French critics have compared the theatrical experience to watching a “revolution live,” and the honors for “Ça ira” come as demonstrations against an overhaul of the labor code have swept across France.

The play — the first in a series that eventually will include a version that addresses the “Reign of Terror” in France after the revolution — is told from the viewpoint of ordinary French citizens rather than leaders like Robespierre and Lafayette. The main historic characters are King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, with the monarch issuing familiar demands for fiscal reforms to tame his nation’s astronomical budget and offering reassurance: “Ça ira” — or, in English, “It Will Be Fine.”

Mr. Pommerat, 53, was not present at the Molière ceremony at the Folies Bergère theater in Paris because he was touring in China. He also collected a fourth award for a children’s production of “Pinocchio.”

In interviews in the French media, Mr. Pommerat has said that he explored the early period of the French Revolution because it raised abstract issues that are not expressed today, including the disconnect between ordinary people and the elite.

At Monday’s ceremony, the spirit of protest carried to the street outside, where more than a dozen demonstrators were demonstrating against a lack of minorities in the Molière award nominations. The group, called Decolonizing the Arts, noted that only one nonwhite person was among the 86 artists nominated in 19 categories.

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